Saturday, November 26, 2016

A Painting Workshop with Elio Camacho

A few weeks ago, my friends Carmen and Donna and I drove to Fernandina Beach, FL to attend a 4 day workshop with Elio Camacho. Elio is one of my favorite painters and my very favorite instructor and I have been lucky enough to attend with workshops twice a year for the past three years.

I started each day with this beautiful sunrise over the ocean, while eating breakfast at the hotel.

This is one of Elio's 36x48" demos that he paints in just three hours!

Here Elio met a challenge to paint without darks. He often states a painting should bring it's own light. I think this one meets that requirement

Another of his larger than life paintings.

This was a 25 minute demo he did for us on foam core. He pushed the color even more than usual and got wild and crazy.

His brushwork is very exciting...something I am hoping to bring to my work.

Elio spent a year painting blue studies, then moved on and studied yellows and reds. He likes to set up still life, to challenge his students, all in a single color. He believes red is the most difficult color to paint. If you can do a red painting, you can really see color. This is a 20 minute demo he did for us one day.

We hated to leave the workshop after 3.5 intense and fun days. To console ourselves, we had a final lunch of fried shrimp at our favorite eatery.

A final photo of Carmen and Donna, de-stressing with ice cream in front of Island Art Association. We thank the members for hosting us once again. Then we hop into our car for the drive home.

One last classic Elio demo that he painted in about 15 minutes, out of his head. I almost cried when he scrapped it off the next morning.

Needless to say, we are excited to return for his next Florida workshop in the spring. You can find his workshop schedule here.